Tipperne Peninsula and Ringkøbing Fjord (Denmark)

Abstract

The establishment of the Tipperne Reserve (55° 52′ N, 8° 14′ E) in the brackish lagoon Ringkøbing Fjord in Denmark dates back to 1898 when the breeding birds were protected on 6 km2 of brackish meadows in the southern end of the lagoon. In 1928 the Reserve was significantly expanded to also include about 18 km2 of shallow flats with prohibition of hunting. From the same year, monitoring of waterbirds and other biodiversity was initiated and has continued ever since. Today, the Reserve presents almost 90 years of continuous bird data together with more randomly collated data on benthos, soil invertebrates and year round water levels in the fjord as well as on the ever expanding meadows. Changes during this long time period have been dramatic, both for the breeding birds and for the staging waterbirds. First of all, eutrophication led to an almost total die off of submerged vegetation around 1979 and mass reductions in associated waterbird numbers that was followed by several attempts to recover good ecological conditions in the fjord. Not until recently have these efforts seem to have been successful.